LANGUAGE OF DYING - Tapa dura

"A beautiful story, honestly told." "Neil Gaiman""

"beautifully written for such a difficult subject, the family details are incredible considering the length.. much heavier than one expects from such a slim story and it opened wounds. Well done!" "Bookstalker""

The Language of Dying is a beautifully crafted, resonant novella, perfectly capturing the horror of watching a person waste away and the guilt of wishing they would hurry up and die. The potentially supernatural element is well-incorporated and leaves the reader in suspense, hinting at the narrator's mental state and allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions about this peculiar family and the thing that lurks just beyond their house. It's a masterful piece of short fiction, and horror fans would do well to add "The Language of Dying" to their must-read list." ""Fantasy Literature"""

"The Language of Dying is a beautifully crafted, resonant novella, perfectly capturing the horror of watching a person waste away and the guilt of wishing they would hurry up and die. The potentially supernatural element is well-incorporated and leaves the reader in suspense, hinting at the narrator's mental state and allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions about this peculiar family and the thing that lurks just beyond their house. It's a masterful piece of short fiction, and horror fans would do well to add "The Language of Dying" to their must-read list." ""Fantasy Literature"""

"a deeply personal and heartfelt novella" ""Bookreporter"""

"A beautiful story, honestly told." Neil Gaiman"

"a deeply personal and heartfelt novella" Bookreporter"

"A beautiful story, honestly told."--Neil Gaiman

"Pinborough's novella captures the haunting and mundane vigil as a loved one near death as well as the complexities of how families deal with this tension . . . Moments of strange fantasy make this meditation on loss both unexpected and meaningful."
--Kirkus Reviews


"The Language of Dying is a beautifully crafted, resonant novella, perfectly capturing the horror of watching a person waste away and the guilt of wishing they would hurry up and die. The potentially supernatural element is well-incorporated and leaves the reader in suspense, hinting at the narrator's mental state and allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions about this peculiar family and the thing that lurks just beyond their house. It's a masterful piece of short fiction, and horror fans would do well to add The Language of Dying to their must-read list."--Fantasy Literature

In this emotionally gripping, genre-defying novella from Sarah Pinborough, a woman sits at her father's bedside, watching the clock tick away the last hours of his life. Her brothers and sisters--she is the middle child of five--have all turned up over the past week to pay their last respects. Each is traumatized in his or her own way, and the bonds that unite them to each other are fragile--as fragile perhaps as the old man's health.

With her siblings all gone, back to their self-obsessed lives, she is now alone with the faltering wreck of her father's cancer-ridden body. It is always at times like this when it--the dark and nameless, the impossible, presence that lingers along the fringes of the dark fields beyond the house--comes calling.

As the clock ticks away in the darkness, she can only wait for it to find her, a reunion she both dreads and aches for...